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Annual Review of Anthropology

Volume 41, 2012

Ancient Mesopotamian Urbanism and Blurred Disciplinary Boundaries

Abstract

Most would agree that anthropology needs a degree of consensus and structure and, arguably, of “identity” as well. But as a discipline, its boundaries are blurred, with ongoing negotiations along its changing peripheries. Frontiers with history and the humanities are examples. Other examples are in the biological sciences, other social sciences, and public and academic policy. This article follows the form of a 65-year contextualized semiautobiography juxtaposing difficulties and ambiguities that have long characterized archaeological preoccupation with building models out of recoverable, material evidence alongside philological fidelity to the testimony of early literate records. My substantive field is ancient southern Mesopotamia, where the earliest beginnings of both urbanism and literacy can be traced. The challenge is to move beyond little more than mere coexistence toward better articulating “text” and “context” to form a more truly interdisciplinary dialogue. This approach touches on other individualized choice and behavioral boundaries as well.

Keyword(s): Autobiography, bridge-too-far, city-states, cuneiform writing, Neolithic Revolution, remote sensing, settlement pattern surveys, text-context complementarity, Urban Revolution
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2012-10-21
2025-06-18
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